The engineers of human souls & academia.

AIMS There has been recent concern about interactions between academia and the pharmaceutical industry. This article seeks to explore the basis for the current sense of crisis. METHODS The approach taken is a historical one, outlining the origins of the crisis. RESULTS The analysis outlines the roles that brands, patents, and the control of the scientific literature play in the current marketing of psychotropic drugs, and describes the processes of guideline capture and brand fascism. CONCLUSIONS The analysis makes it difficult to see current interactions between industry and academia as anything but bad for academia. One option that might restore some balance would be to restrict scientific meetings and journals to communications that made all relevant scientific data available, excluding exercises that restrict access to data.